Prenatal Progestin Exposure-Mediated Oxytocin Suppression Contributes to Social Deficits in Mouse Offspring.

ABSTRACT: Epidemiological studies have shown that maternal hormone exposure is associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The hormone oxytocin (OXT) is a central nervous neuropeptide that plays an important role in social behaviors as well as ASD etiology, although the detailed mechanism remains largely unknown. In this study, we aim to investigate the potential role and contribution of OXT to prenatal progestin exposure-mediated mouse offspring. Our in vitro study in the hypothalamic neurons that isolated from paraventricular nuclei area of mice showed that transient progestin exposure causes persistent epigenetic changes on the OXT promoter, resulting in dissociation of estrogen receptor β (ERβ) and retinoic acid-related orphan receptor α (RORA) from the OXT promoter with subsequent p

SUBMITTER: Huang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8964973 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature